DATA MANAGEMENT
Managing data should be a priority for any trust given the financial consequences of breaching regulations, argues John-Jo Campbell, head of IT at St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in London.
T
he data that trusts hold is becoming more important every day, both in
terms of measuring performance and in the delivery and improvement of services for patients.
This is why more and more trusts are investing in their data management systems, which can allow them to share all kinds of information across trusts in ways that can revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered.
Prior to the implementation of Cerner Millennium, St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust’s new clinical information system, data was held only in the trust’s patient administration system.
“It was not possible to upgrade this da- tabase to accept the information that the Cerner Millennium system would be pro- ducing,” says John-Jo Campbell, the trust’s head of IT. “Furthermore, the increasing need for data integration across systems meant that the technologies the trust was using were no longer fit for purpose.
“The trust therefore chose a data ware- house solution which could accommodate information from old and new systems in a consolidated and consistent database with the capability of integration with patient- level data from other systems.”
As with the implementation of any new technical system, there were new things for the team to grasp.
Campbell explained: “The main challenges included understanding the new data ex- tracts available from Cerner Millennium, the field-by-field mapping of individual data items into the data warehouse – to ensure alignment of data for old and new systems – and setting up extensive ‘look- up’ tables to achieve continuity of data.”
So how does the system work and what data does it manage?
Campell told NHE: “The system man- ages patient-level data from both the old and current systems. Data from Cerner Millennium is provided on a daily basis in the form of CDS and IM200 extracts. The database also holds patient-level
48 | national health executive Mar/Apr 11
data available from other operational and clinical systems used by the trust, such as pathology, radiology, and critical care sys- tems for adults, paediatrics and neonates, which is updated on a weekly basis.
“An Extract Transfer and Load process delivers this data into a series of tables, which are then made available to the staff through a series of datasets known as busi- ness object universes, which are fully com- pliant against the national data dictionary.
“Besides generic universes for depart- ments such as A&E, there are a number of bespoke datasets which deal with specific reporting requirements, such as Payment by Results. There is also bespoke function- ality to deliver CDS extracts to secondary use services and to support other standard information flows.”
There are many benefits to the new sys-
tem, not just in controlling data but in us- ing it more effectively for the good of the patients.
Campbell said: “It delivers an integrated reporting solution for historic and new data and allows for business continuity of key reporting through Cerner Millenium. The system can accommodate further datasets and has the potential to radi- cally change the way the information team shares data across the trust.”
And Campbell said he believes there is go- ing to be a steady development of the way the trust uses data, adding: “Going for- ward, the trust would like to continue to develop the reporting functionality to im- prove the way we share information within the trust.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.stgeorges.nhs.uk
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